1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for a Wi-Fi communication system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and device that provide content casting services using a Wi-Fi communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent popularization of terminals or devices supporting Wi-Fi communication or Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communication, research has been actively conducted into devices that can provide various services using a WLAN communication system.
In particular, a device may provide a content casting service to another device. For example, a first device may transmit stored content data to a second device such as a Wireless Access Point (WAP) through a first frequency band, and transmit content data to a third device such as a smartphone through a second frequency band. Here, as is widely known, a WAP refers to a device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi or related standards.
However, an existing device may use only one of a plurality of frequency bands at a particular time to communicate with external devices. In other words, to simultaneously connect to multiple external devices (for example, first and second external devices), an existing device needs to conduct periodic switching between communication channels (actually used frequency bands) at the PHYsical (PHY) layer. For example, the device may receive content data from a first external device (e.g. WAP) through a channel of a first frequency band (e.g. 2.4 GHz) and store the same. The device then switches the PHY layer channel from the first frequency band to a second frequency band (e.g. 5 GHz) and transmits the stored content data to a second external device (e.g. TV) through the second frequency band channel. Then, to connect back to the first external device, the device needs to switch the PHY layer channel from the second frequency band to the first frequency band.
An existing device operating as described above may suffer degradation of maximum available throughput at each frequency band according to loss of throughput due to time division and loss of time due to switching between frequency bands. For example, when the device attempts to transmit a large amount of content data through a 5-GHz band while using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) through a 2.4-GHz band, the amount of content data transmittable through the 5-GHz band may be limited. Additionally, the device may experience loss of time owing to periodic switching between frequency bands at the MAC and PHY layers.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device and method for receiving content data from a first external device through a receive frequency band and simultaneously transmitting the received content data to a second external device through a transmit frequency band.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.